Salem's Pov
One year has gone since the whole Mary's spring's incident they said they were going to get things under control within a week and the Crystal Scale team after they were healed decided to stay to keep an eye on the village while I decided to leave after day two after Jacob had given part of the reward money as a I assisted in the mission even though I wasn't part of their guild. Lorenzo and Greta seemed sad and urged for me to stay a little more so we could get to know each other better while Fautso looked deep in thought not caring about everything around him.
Jacob advised me to stay until my injuries were fully healed first plus, he wanted to ask more questions on Cyberdemon and Milotic. But I said I was fine but before they could push further, I just said goodbye and turned into an owl and flew away. I then met up with Morrigan close to the river.
Any after that we spent a good bit of time in Bellum, I took care of the other anomaly alone with was a low A-rank which was a large griffin from a game called dragon's dogma it was terrorising the town of Manarola as it claimed the area close to it as its territory making it difficult for the residents. They did send a guild request but a good number of mages failed even if they managed to exceed the monster.
As usual Morrigan didn't help as she said I need to learn to stand on my own. So yeah, I had a big aero battle with it in my Rathalos form and a good thing it had a slight fire weakness but it still put up a good fight with its lightning and wind-based attacks. The battle took a little while until it was much faster than the Milotic and had a little more power but it lacked the defence and additional tricks.
After the hard battle I barely beat the monster living a ruined mountain side. I sent the thing to Morpheus. After a mouth I saw another movement of an anomaly and persuaded Morrigan to investigate. It was in a large city called Guidono which famous coliseums were Gladiators used to battle, but unfortunately a high-level S-class anomaly had made one of the colosseums it's home 6 days before we got there and spread dark magic around the city.
It was the Capra Demon from Dark Souls and it raised questions for me because I'm sure the Capra demon couldn't do that in the game. Apparently, they already sent it an s-class job request. Morrigan seeing a job opportunity went to the mayor flexed her magic causing a good proportion of the city to shake and the mayor immediately gave her the job and she even added a free stay at their famous hotel as part of the deal. Now Morrigan was not the hero type she jumped on the chances of experiencing luxuries.
Though something was off about her that day she really looked like she just wanted all the smoke that day and told her not to get involved and stop anyone who comes in the colosseum. Of course, I wondered she had a plan to counter the demon and just smirk all bloodthirsty and said not to worry, her voice was a little different though.
We got to the Starfall colosseum which was like hundreds of feet tall and it happened to be the place emitting all the dark magic. I could see why it was causing problems. I felt the magic was very corrupt and suffocating, leaning towards death and it was affecting the surrounding area. The crazy woman just giggled and went inside and I transformed into my full cat form just to chill, I developed a full habit of doing this.
Not a minute later I saw Lorenzo, Greta, Fautso and Jacob but they had two others with them. First was a woman about twenty with green hair eyes and was dressed in sexy combat clothes which were more plant based.
The next was a man who was a paladin or something he even had a helmet on so I couldn't see his face.
Of course, I transformed back to normal in a split second to avoid complications. When Lorenzo and Greta saw me they ran up excitedly and we exchanged greetings along with Jacob but Fautso just grunted focused on the colosseum with a dark look on his face. I got introduced to the other two. The woman's name was Flora Camellia and the man's name was just Kane. I switched back to a cat and I found that I snuggled in Greta's chest not that I minded.
Fautso asked me if the monster terrorising the city was a demon like the Cyberdemon and before I could answer him, we felt a huge earthquake rather than a huge blast of darkness magic shot out of the huge colosseum. We saw Morrigan fly out of the colosseum, her hand all giant like and throw the demon out the city and fly after it. The crystal Scale guild members wanted to interfere especially Fautso and I barely managed to stop them but Jacob mostly held back Fautso.
Flora who seemed a little on the serious side took charge and said that she would help by at least purify the air of all the dark magic and help the citizens and if she senses something off in the battle, they will jump in. Apparently, she had plant magic and used them to absorb the dark magic and Fautso also had a devil slayer spell for that too. As that was happening, we were feeling the aftershocks of the battle and Greta asked me who was the lady fighting while Lorenzo was restless.
The knight never said a word the whole time. After 45 minutes Morrigan came back and brought the mutilated capra demon and I just did my thing but a lot of questions were in my head. She seemed to have had the little release and was a little less crazy now she took some heavy damages though.
Flora, Jacob and Fautso walked up to her to ask questions but she just ignored them and walked up to Greta snatched me from her and flesh stepped away. We got the reward money and ate the restaurant kings/queens, we ran into the Crystal guild the next day and Fautso walked up to Morrigan demanding to know how she slayed the demon and she answered with a simple "magic" answer basically trolling the guy and causing me to laugh.
Flora held him back but she explained the Capra demon was a high-level threat and the stronger mages who were called in to deal with it ended up getting killed mainly because Bellum didn't have a good number of strong mages compared to other kingdoms. So, they were just curious of Morrigan in general as a mage as strong as her should be famous around here.
The discussion didn't take more time than went our separate ways. I asked Morrigan later if she had another magic, she didn't tell me about it and she answered truthfully that she did but didn't feel comfortable showing yet which I understood. We had stayed in Bellum for a little longer. I wanted to go after the last anomaly in the area but it was a double s and I asked Morrigan for help and she said that I had to deal with that one when I am an S-class mage.
We went back to Pergranda and I went back to the blood feather forest red zone where the Quetzalcoatl returned to. The yellow and red zone had some interesting flying-based monsters I wanted to take-over but I had to keep my eyes on the prize. We hadn't caught the attention of the monsters in the area and followed my phone until we got to a huge clearing and saw a golden Aztec temple and I so the crazy old woman's eyes turned to hearts.
I told Morrigan everything I knew about and its potential powers and abilities so we made a plan and coordinated attacks to take it down as straight up combat was a no go. After we dragged it out of the temple, we battled it and our plan involved us buying a lot of poisons, explosive lacrima and flesh grenades. After a long-fought battle and most of the red zone and a good chunk of yellow zone a mess and a little bit of the mountain blasted off I took over the anomaly.
Now the Quetzalcoatl didn't go down without a fight and it was a high s-class and I almost got killed a lot of times in the fight if not for Morrigan. It had fire, wind, and it made it rain so yeah it was a tough snake to takedown. It was a good thing this wasn't the actual Quetzalcoatl from mythology or fate or any divine version of it otherwise we would have been obliterated.
Morrigan rushed me to the closest hospital which was the clinic at Enia where doctor Maple took care of our injuries. We stayed at the Shirukus till we recovered, which they accepted without hesitation. Morrigan took a week while I was going to take a whole ass month. Ann decided to make special clothes for all my animal transformations and cheetah form. Why? Because Morrigan said it would give them more uniqueness but I still had to pay for them.
Morrigan left as I was still recuperating and said we would meet back at Enia in two weeks after I've recovered, probably to raid the temple or something. But not before giving a warning not to use my new form until she had come back.
Fast forward and I recovered enough while helping around Shiruku's manor as I really didn't want to be too much of a freeloader. Then Morrigan came back and I commented she looked like she was wearing a jewellery store which got me hard smack to the head.
A little later she suggested that we go to the yellow zone to test my Quetzalcoatl abilities. I after like 10 minutes of sparing I blacked out and when I woke up, I was in the Shiruku manor. Morrigan informed me that I lost control for like 8 more minutes than fully unconscious after running out of magic.
She said that this form was far more complex and obvious too powerful as it was a very high s-class monster and there is a massive difference between those in A rank and S rank. I should train to fully grasp now so I should keep it under wraps and use it as a trump card only when desperate till I'm strong enough.
End of Pov
Nighttime in a forest
"Lunar impact!" Salem yelled in his rabbit form and legs slammed hard on a dark mage. His form was a little different due to it being a since time has passed, his ears were longer, tail a little furrier. His outfit consisted of a black waist coat, a white inside red tie and black pants which complimented his furry legs and did not hinder mobility.
One tried to sneak but he ducked, grabbed his head with his legs and slammed him hard to the ground making a crack. Four other mages shot their spells at him but he turned into a full cat and ran across the ground avoiding the attack and ran up a tree. When one of the mages fired an attack at the tree destroying it Salem was not even there much to their shock.
The two behind him were then suddenly smacked hard by a strong tail knocking them out. It was Salem His eyes were more cat like, cat ears with white fur and the edge and long cat tail. He a black short sleeved hoodie which let his ears flow out, a black shirt with a cat symbol inside it, black shorts and a black mask.
He then punched one of the remaining two hard straight through four trees and the other one tried to get away using a levitating ball. Salem quickly caught up to him before she went for it by running on all fours, pulling down the mask and biting the dark mage's neck making the dark magic scream in pain through him in the air and the bicycle kicked him. Salem stretched like a cat a little and his ears switched as his tail smacked an incoming metal projectile coming his way.
He turned and saw about 30 more dark mages coming his way. Salem purred in a little delight and sprouted a little smirk.
"Come on, this is just one kid, let's just kill him already!" One of them yelled and they all yelled getting ready to attack.
But then in a split second they were all frozen in place by powerful ice magic. Salem now wolf features like, a wolf like blue eyes, white furry ears, tail, furry claw arms and legs. He wore a white hoodie with furry edges and let his ears flow, a black shirt with a claw mark and pants with furry edges.
"Meh, not bad." Morrigan came out of nowhere like usual but he had grown completely used to it by now. She was wearing a black turtleneck with golden ring designs around it and brown pants. Her hair was in a long curly style.
"Seriously?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yep, your transformation timing has improved. Good job." She rubbed his head.
"Stop that." He said a little embarrassed and moved his head away.
"Your wagging means that you enjoyed it~." She teased him a bit and he just clicked his tongue and transformed back to normal.
Now Salem in a thirteen-year-old body, now a little taller, hair had gotten longer and was also currly because his mentor dragged him to a salon yesterday, and his voice was getting deeper but still cracked from time to time. He wore a brown jacket, a black and white striped shirt, black pants, sandals as he found himself liking the wind passing his feet, and finally his green star bandanna wrapped on top of his head.
"Now let's just hurry and bind these guys and collect our money shall we~." Morrigan patted his head much to his dismay, causing her to laugh. 'I wonder if he could have been like this too if he was given a chance to grow up?' The woman thought having a sad expression on her face which Salem noticed.
"Hey Morri you good?" He asked worriedly, making her form a small smile.
"Am fine Salem." She mushed his face with her chest much to his embarrassment.
Later
The shapeshifting duo tied up the dark mages and used Morrigan's head into the town to collect their reward. The two were in Lupinus town located in the Fiore kingdom.
"Remember what I told you." Morrigan said to Salem. The woman had shifted her appearance to that of a cute sixteen-year-old girl with pink hair, purple eyes and pale skin. She wore a green shirt, white jacket and black pants.
"I got it you crazy old lady damn." Salem said in his full cat form. It was a little bigger, fur in the neck area thicker and had a little white on it and the same could be said for his tail and ears. "Why the hell did we shapeshift to get into this hotel anyway?"
"Because you little ass the hotel offers discounts for people under 18 years of age and after I throw in a little more charm, we're bound to get a lot more."
"Okay three questions: one why did you make me shift to my cat form, two why did you even change your skin colour and three didn't you already have a shit ton of money?"
"To answer in order one: Pets get in free and I'm not paying for you when we have an easy solution, second when I transform, I go all the way and lastly I used it to pay off some people for, um stuff."
Salem just gave her a deadpan stare as they went into the hotel. After Morrigan abused the discount rule of the place and seduced the like forty-year-old male manager to drop the price further and get us in a better room but am pretty sure she still could have done that with her normal look.
Once we got to the deluxe room, he was chilling on the bed while still in his cat form listening to music on the magic headphones Morrigan got for him while he was taking a shower. She came out of the shower in her normal look and he couldn't help but stare.
"Eyes up her you little prev. I know puberty is hard plus with those animal instincts on top but have some safe control junior." She teased.
"Then don't appear like that In Front of me." Salem hissed a little, putting his head back down and Morrigan sat by a mirror fixing her hair.
Salem then stretched on, took out his phone from his pocket dimension and held it with his tail. He checked if his message to Morpheus about putting some songs from his old world was possible but he hasn't answered. He sighed and looked at the date it was today. It was November the 16th and it was his dad's birthday today and Salem's ears lowered which Morrigan noticed.
Ever since she met on four specific days, he always got his mode down for some reason similar to homesickness and today was one of them. She really didn't know how to comfort him since that wasn't her strong suit so she just let him go off doing whatever he does then come back once he was done.
"Hey Morrigan." He called out to her.
"Yes?" She answered.
"Why are we in Fiore?" He asked, trying to distract himself from his home sickness.
"Oh, right two reasons, the first is that this country seemed to have a relationship with the Black mage so I came to check it out some time ago."
"Wait you mean Zeref. Why the hell do you care about Zeref and isn't he dead." Now of course Salem knew Zeref was alive and just chilling in on his former loli lover's island or whatever.
"Junior, I know I shouldn't tell you this but Zeref is very much alive." Morrigan said seriously. "And am not interested in him but a certain something connected to him will lead to some personally answered questions for myself.
And the second reason is that two of the ten wizard saints have just been kicked out and a certain girl I know is going to be elected to the spot and she contacted me saying she wanted to see me." Morrigan finished her explanation.
The whole Zeref thing was still fresh in his mind like what questions did she want answered and why was she so open to tell him but she was very ambiguous so asking now would be a waste of time. She suddenly slid into the bed wearing bed wear then stretched her arm pulling me snuggling on me.
"Hey!" I hissed at her.
"Quiet you know you love this and by the way do you have some creatures to hunt here too?"
"Yeah."
"Good I noticed you've been feeling on the low so am going to leave you for two weeks to do whatever to cheer up just don't mess with the S-tier ones. We can meet back at the clover once you're done."
"Okay. So can you let go of me now?"
"Nope~."
Next day
Salem was just in a random dinner seated by the counter eating breakfast which consisted of the dozen pancakes, six sausages, scrambled eggs and coffee Morrigan to get her hair down and told him to meet at the hotel in 5 hours. As Salem he remembered that two of the wizard saints had their seats taken away from them and it was year 784 meaning canon events had already gone down.
'Damn I wonder if this news is affecting other countries though.' He then shrugged and went back to eating.
A black-haired waitress tipped and dropped some tray containing freshly cooked food near his head but made his rabbit ears appear in an instant and easily caught the tray stabilising the palates and preventing any food from dropping. Still using the ears, I handed her the tray and she was in awe while taking it. The people at the dinner just clapped their hands at the display.
"Neat trick kid." A male voice complimented him. Salem looked to his right and saw a tall male in a brown cloak coming and sitting by him. The voice sounded familiar to him. The man took off his hood revealing short blonde hair and a lightning shaped scar on his eye.
'The fuck Laxus Dreyar.'Salem thought in mild surprise.